QP Tuesday: Government launching ‘robust’ labour market studies

Three months after it was first revealed that the Conservatives use Kijiji to help calculate job vacancies, the federal government has announced it plans to launch new labour information studies.

In question period Wednesday, Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney told his colleagues the Conservatives are creating two “significant, robust” new labour market studies.

“Of them, one will be a quarterly study on job vacancies and the other a robust annual survey on wage rates, just as experts have asked us to do,” he said.

Kenney’s response followed a question by Liberal MP John McCallum, who suggested one of the Conservatives’ “stupidest” moves was slashing spending on labour market data. The government, he said, allegedly used market shortages to “justify a mushrooming increase” of temporary foreign workers.

“Did they deliberately bury the data to hide the fact that they were hiring foreigners when Canadians were able and willing to do the work?,” McCallum asked.

That question, like a few others later on in question period, was “ridiculous” according to Kenney.

Wednesday’s news stems from a controversy around how the Conservatives calculated the job vacancy rate in Canada. A job report published along with the federal budget in February said Canada’s job vacancy rate was on the rise and would likely remain high for years to come.

One problem, noted by experts and politicians, is the lack of reliable and consistent data on the labour shortages nationwide. Moreover, shortages vary drastically from one province to the next.

This very issue was highlighted in the auditor general’s most recent report. In it, Auditor General Michael Ferguson concluded the government needed better jobs data, specifically around what skills are lacking. Both the classifications and location of shortages, Ferguson said, are inadequate.

The apparent lack of skilled workers and high rate of job vacancies has been used by the government as a way to justify the use of the temporary foreign worker program. While some industries — including agriculture, trucking and even the fast food industry — depend on temporary help, the program has come under fire after allegations of abuse. Several companies have been blacklisted by the government for hiring temporary foreign workers before Canadian citizens, and for other abuses of the program.

“Unlike the Liberals, who set up the low-skilled temporary foreign worker program in 2002, we are going to tighten up this program and ensure that Canadians always come first,” Kenney said.

In addition to talk of the temporary foreign worker program, which Kenney said will be reformed in the near future, members discussed the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, the prostitution bill and Northern Gateway Pipeline.

“When will the government stand-up for British Columbians?” NDP Finance critic Nathan Cullen demanded in the House in reference to the pipeline.

The government, the parliamentary secretary to the environment minister said, will review the independent panel’s recommendations before making a decision.

The government issued similar comments when asked about a decision on whether to procure the F-35 fighter jets to replace Canada’s aging CF-18s.

The panel of experts reviewing Canada’s options for fighter jets is expected to address the media any day. A decision, however, is not expected for months.

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Somehow, I doubt that a phone survey of employers will solve the problem, if employers in markets where people can’t get jobs are already claiming they have no qualified applicants in order to use the TFW program. Typical of this government to throw another 14 million at it in order to perpetuate a problem. Kind of like the F-35s and everything else they touch.